16–20 March - Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery and makes three successful flights at Aptos, California, the highest launch being at 3,000 feet with an 18-minute descent to a predetermined landing location.
27 April - Sapper Moreton of the British Army's balloon section is lifted 2,600 ft by a kite at Aldershot under the supervision of the kite's designer, Samuel Cody.
29 April - Daniel Maloney is launched by balloon in a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery to an altitude of 4,000 feet before release and gliding and then landing at a predetermined location as part of a large public demonstration of aerial flight at Santa Clara, California].
14 July - Orville Wright has a serious crash with Wright Flyer III, upon which the Wright Brothers radically alter the aircraft. The front rudder is mainly the culprit for the Flyer's insistent pitching.
18 July - Daniel Maloney launches a tandem-wing glider designed by John Montgomery at Santa Clara, California. A balloon cable damages the glider and upon release Maloney and the aircraft fall uncontrolled to the ground, killing Maloney. This is the third death of a heavier-than-air aircraft pilot after Otto Lilienthal in 1896 and Percy Pilcher in 1899.
31 August -Balloonist John Baldwin accidentally killed during a premature dynamite/balloon stunt at County Fair, Greenville Ohio
September - The Wright Brothers resume flight experiments with the re-designed Flyer III with performance of the airplane immediately in the positive. Smooth controlled flights lasting over 20 minutes now occur.
7 September - Flying circles over a cornfield near Dayton, Ohio, and chasing flocks of birds, Orville Wright records history's first bird strike. The dead bird lays on the airplane's wing before Wright makes a sharp turn and dumps it off.
4 October - Piloting the Flyer III over Huffman Prairie outside Dayton, Ohio, Orville Wright makes the first airplane flight in history of over 30 minutes in length.
5 October - Wilbur Wright makes a flight of 24.2 miles over Huffman Prairie in the Flyer III. The flight lasts for 39 minutes 23 seconds.
14 October - The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is founded in Paris.
15 October - The Wright brothers record a flight of just over 24 miles in 28 minutes in the Wright Flyer III.
16 October - The Wright brothers complete their 1905 test flight program, making their last flight until May 1908.
30 November - At Lake Constance, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's LZ2airship is damaged significantly while attempting its first launch.
December - Neil MacDermid is carried aloft in Canada by a large box kite named The Siamese Twins, designed by Alexander Graham Bell.
